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A Croc's Tale

After the whole fiasco with both the Agents and the Collectives, the group decided that they needed to lay low and not draw too much attention anymore. With Jek and Narati killing two of the Agents at such ease, there was a widespread manhunt for the two of them, despite of not knowing their faces and their names. The people in the ground floor kept quiet about it, and it helped the two of them to stay under, at least until the inevitable came.

They travelled away from the heart of trouble with the cover of night, knowing that many people could not be trusted. The Agents were notorious, not in their perceived superiority and their bad relationship with the locals, but because of their ferocity in trying to root out their own problems. While it was a good call, it wasn't for those who thought of them as villains and monsters that disrupt the peace.

Jek did not feel any regret in killing that human. He was just like many of his past targets, so he assumed that as something of a job itself, though not with payment. No one in that bar seemed to mind his sudden kill, so he felt that it was something he could think of. He just wished he could escape with them, to form the Wanderers into a bigger mercenary group.

While Jek silently pondered the situation they got into, Narati and Karkas sat together near the fire while Aranis, Raine, and Kazan conversed on the situation and discuss the next action. Narati looked at Karkas, but was unable to say something that could start a decent conversation. The Fa'ar knew that the outburst towards the croc back then was childish and out of impulse. It somehow strengthened the fact that he was the only underage person in that group, and was, by any means, a child. Despite of his claims that he had lost so much and had killed to live, he had not seen the consequences of his actions. In the end, survival isn't about killing, after all. If that was the case, then the world had truly ended.

After a while, Karkas then said, "Hey, rat."

"I have a name, you know," said Narati, annoyed at being called a rat all the time.

"Your name is Narati, right?"

"Rat is not my nickname. I prefer to be called Nara."

"I think it fits better since you're a Fa'ar. A rat beast race."

"I don't feel like that's appropriate. Besides, I'm a Chaos race."

"You're a beast race, too, so it still applies," said Karkas. "You know...back in that market, you want me to tell you about my hatred to your race. I never talked about it much, especially in front of a Fa'ar. I don't like talking about it, either, so I prefer not to get drunk and get myself killed because of that."

"Is he a dangerous pack leader?"

"Dangerous?" Karkas laughed. "I can snap his back like a twig!"

When the croc noticed Narati shuddered from that comment, he realized he hit a soft spot and said, "Sorry, I don't mean to."

"Not helping if I hear that from you."

"Am I that intimidating? To be honest with you, I'm considered tiny among my race."

"Not for me! I'm the shortest guy around here!"

Karkas sighed. "Okay...I'll try not to intimidate you. Basically, he's just like you, a loner who had no pack. He claimed that his pack was massacred, but I refused to believe that after he was exposed. Yet, from how you act, I have some doubts that it was true after all. When you Fa'ars work in a group, you tend to lose your individuality and become weak when everyone's leaving you. But, when you're all alone...you survive and you become one of the most dangerous people I've ever met."

"Thanks for the compliment," said Narati, smiling.

"That's not much of a compliment, but I guess it sounds like it. Anyway, this rat...he's a cunning bastard who has a silver-tongue. He's a con artist, but it's not apparent. He can flatter people to help him willingly, despite of him being a Fa'ar. I know your race is not that popular around here, but like you, he can convince people to follow him. Yet, his style is different. He knows a lot of things I do not, and that is my first mistake."

"Well, I know Fa'ars are quite well-versed in some of the rumors," said Narati. "So, it's not surprising if he knows so much. Most Fa'ars can't fight for their own."

"I did tell you that, right? But, this person is different. He's smart, able to kill a group of bandits without causing an alarm, like an assassin. His style is different from you, who prefer bombs and stuff. But, other than that, he cannot do anything. He's not good at direct combat, he's not strong, and he's small, like most rats."

"You'd be surprised with some of the Fa'ars. They can grow to the size of your kind."

"But it's not that much, right? Besides, you don't seem to strike me as a race that values strength over mind."

"This is a big world."

Karkas scoffed. "Not as big now with most of it uninhabitable. Anyway, this Fa'ar. His name is Asran. He seems docile at first, but not kind, which is a trick, of course. You don't act too kind to not make other suspicious of you. He acts like someone who's gone through a lot, and he told me of a job. You see, normally I'd reject it out of suspicion, and because he was a Fa'ar. But, Asran and I knew each other and had crossed path many times, though we didn't know our own intentions since we didn't talk like friends. We are more like partners than personal friends.

"At that time, I'm young and gullible. All I believe in this world were that the strong survives, and that's it. Even if I'm smaller than most crocs, if I get the muns and able to eat without starving, I'm fine with being ridiculed. I can kill them to shut some mouth, but soon after my story with him, things changed for me. Asran looked like he needed a muscle to do his job, so I partnered with him in killing this raid camp, a job he claimed coming from a small free-town nearby.

"Me as Asran worked well together. I was the brawn and he was the brain. He mostly ordered me around, which, for a rat, seemed appropriate. Of course, I'm not just an idiot with too much muscles. While I might be a naïve idiot, I can still think of strategy and such. We ended up killing the whole place and slowly I realized what he was after: a cache full of valuable junks that could be sold for muns.

"He knew the prices for them, but by this point I knew he was going to betray me, all because he was a Fa'ar and that's in his nature. But, before that happened, a group of raiders, or so it seemed, ambushed us and almost killed me."

"Killed you?"

"While they also attacked Asran, they didn't do much harm towards that bastard. He didn't even try to fight back. That didn't come to my mind before since, well, we were in a fight, and I was the one getting the most attacks. Despite of being hurt and not being able to fight properly, I managed to kill every one of the ambushers, to my relief. I thought I was a goner back there. But...surprise. I got shot in the head, and the last fucking thing I heard was a small voice, saying, 'Sorry, partner, but you're too much of a brute'.

"I knew, there and then, that I was foolish enough to not confront him and was blind in the excitement to know his true intentions. I've known that he'd shot me in the back, and I'm ready to do it when the ambush came. I survived, of course. He had a good aim, but he didn't think of the thickness of my skull, no pun intended there."

"How's that?"

"A croc has a thick plated scale that protect their back, up to their head and to the tip of their tail. If you have seen our less evolved cousins, then that's how they protect themselves from harm. Unlike them, however, we have thicker scales that can withstand explosion and bullets, but that's it. Our front is still covered in normal scales, like most reptilian beast race, so our weakness is the one protected the most.

"I woke up, will all my things gone, even my clothes. I know they are just ragged clothes, but I was dressed in traditional crocodilian garb, so it looked valuable to them. I improvised some coverings and walked away from the scene, bloodied and hurt. Eventually, I reached the same free-town that we got the job from, and guess what? I was duped from two fronts, after all. In fact, I was never partnered with Asran all this time. He was partnered with someone else, and from the bar keeper I found his true intention of taking me to a raid.

"Asran was known to be a trickster who liked to trick people into making a raid in promise of a share, then took it all by himself when they were the most vulnerable. Since he was a Fa'ar, he had no problems in partnering with shady people, only to betray them and take their bounties, too. His partner was found killed some hours after Asran left the bar, with him being positioned like someone who was drunk and slept on the table. I tracked down one of the allies of the killed person and I realized that the raid was a bait. While the raiders we eliminated the first time was a job from the town, the ambush wasn't. I was supposed to be incapacitated due to his inaction, and was to be sold as a slave. Crocs sold well around that part, especially an outcast like me, who was not in a tribe. It's easier to get a 'clean bod' than someone from a tribe."

"So, you have a pack mindset, too?"

"Everyone is, though only your race and that wolf have a prominent mindset. We don't really need the tribe that much. We do that for survival. What's not for survival these days anyway? The times of glory is long gone, and I don't need someone to remind me that we were once a fucking government."

"At least you got a government," said Narati with a solemn face. "My race is the villain of the situation."

"Not just your race, kid," said Karkas. "But at least you're honest about the fact that you're still a kid. Anyway, from that time, I tracked Asran, always getting to people who were tricked by him, yet he hid his tracks well. For 5 years, my life has been fixated in trying to get things straight with him, and possibly kill that fucker for screwing me up."

"Five years and you still hold a grudge? He could be dead before you even have time killing him."

"I will never forget anyone who screw me over. That's how I live my life, and of all the people who chose to fuck me up, this fucker is the only one who eludes me like a rat he is. But then, one month with you guys seems to have softened by taste for revenge. If it wasn't for your friends defending you, I might've killed an innocent Fa'ar, and I can't live to bear the fact that I killed a child."

"Have you ever got that problem before?"

"I'm not blind. I know fur color and eye color when I see one. Asran looks just like you, except that you're younger and you had more scars than he was. Also, now that I think about it, Asran never wore a google and he had the tip of his tail cut in an accident."

"So how can you mistake me for him?"

"Because you dress well," said Karkas. "Not many Fa'ars dress like you or him."

"You know that sounds like a prejudice to me, right?"

"It is, but, how can I be sure?"

"You can just ask me."

"Right. A stranger walk into your camp, sit by the campfire, eat some charred meat, and asked if you're Asran. Like that would work."

"It won't work in our case, though. I made sure of it."

"No one's gonna step in this camp without stepping on those mines, huh? Just to be fair, kid, those mines are hard to miss. But good try anyway."

"Unlike a certain someone who throw a boulder at us."

Karkas and Narati looked at each other for a moment, contemplating on their banter, before they slowly laugh. Their laugh then became louder as they realized that they were making fun of their own defense measures.

Jek, who was nearby, was attracted to the two sharing a laugh, which made him slightly annoyed, yet relieved that Karkas would not become a threat after all. Raine then approached him and said, "Look at those two. They were at odds before. Now they share a laugh. One hell of a development, right?"

"Not as much as a development than us getting ourselves killed," said Jek. "Shit. I just want to make a small settlement when his kind can live and work honestly, but I guess now we're the target of an insane cult."

"I thought you want to make a settlement to settle down and stop making muns out of dead people."

"I was planning to do that, but travelling with Narati, and the way people treated him, I felt nothing but pity towards him. One year ago, when we first met, I only thought of him as a coward and a Fa'ar who could've betrayed me like that worm-tail. But..."

Jek turned towards Narati and Karkas. They made a very lively conversation after a long story-telling session.

"His kindness and pure curiosity sometimes make me forget that he was a troubled youth who had no problem killing those he thought to treat others without justice. He may be a coward still, but he has grown a lot since then."

"You sound like his big brother already," said Raine with a smile. "He changed you a lot, huh?"

Jek chuckled. "Nah. Not just him. You and Aranis, too. You were once a cold-blooded killer, but changed for the better and earn respect, too, instead of notoriety. Aranis made me realize that violence is not the way to end things in most cases. Somehow, I regretted telling that kid my story, but what's done is done. Things may not have a good start, but at least it changes for the better."

"You bet it is." Raine then yawned. "I'm off to bed. First watch?"

"Wake you up in a few."

Raine smiled and left Jek alone, while he looked up towards the night sky and smiled himself. The wolfman moved his tail towards his side, trying to relieve some itchiness, while thinking about his future and Narati. Raine's words were right in all its fairness. Narati had grown a lot since their first meeting. His actions might've awakened his dark side, but it was better than being bottled in him. Jek wanted to make sure that Narati could fight for himself, even if he was a Fa'ar, before he settled down and possibly start a family, with Raine taking charge with the mercenary business.

Before all that, though. They must sort out the problem they started....